LitQueuelitqueue

After

Night Boat to Tangier

Kevin Barry2019

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Last car to Elysian Fields

    James Lee Burke2003

    Detective Dave Robicheaux returns to New Orleans to investigate the assault of a priest, confronting his own past in the city.

    Same elegiac register, still noir

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Sound and the Fury

    William Faulkner1929

    The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.

    Same elegiac register

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Briefing for a Descent into Hell

    Doris Lessing1971

    A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • A Peach of a Murder

    Livia J. Washburn2006

    A retired teacher and her friends investigate a murder at a peach festival in a small Texas town. The story includes recipes for peach-based dishes.

    elegiac → warm

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Studfinder

    L.B. Dunbar

    A forty-year-old woman hires a younger contractor to renovate her home. A relationship develops as they work together in a small town.

    elegiac → warm

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The case of the lucky legs

    Erle Stanley Gardner1931

    Defense attorney Perry Mason represents a woman accused of murdering a promoter who scammed her in a beauty contest.

    elegiac → propulsive, still noir

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Deadline at Dawn

    Cornell Woolrich1944

    A sailor and a dancer have until sunrise to find a killer and clear their names. The story follows their frantic search through New York City.

    elegiac → tense, still noir

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • Plugged

    Eoin Colfer2011

    An Irish bouncer in New Jersey searches for his girlfriend's killer while being hunted by the mob. He is also recovering from a hair transplant.

    elegiac → sardonic, still noir

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Dial A for Aunties

    Jesse Q. Sutanto2021

    A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Umbrella

    Will Self2013

    A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

    elegiac → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The English Patient

    Michael Ondaatje1992

    Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The North Water

    Ian McGuire2016

    A disgraced surgeon joins a whaling expedition where a psychopathic harpooner commits a murder. The crew becomes trapped in the Arctic ice.

    elegiac → cold, still noir

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

    Horace McCoy1935

    Two strangers enter a grueling 1930s dance marathon for prize money. The narrative is framed by a murder trial.

    elegiac → bleak, still noir

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Trainspotting

    Irvine Welsh1993

    A group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh navigate poverty, violence, and withdrawal. The narrative uses heavy phonetic Scottish dialect.

    elegiac → sardonic, still noir

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1